Voted Auckland’s Best Food Market by Metro Magazine for the last 7 years, La Cigale French Market is held every Saturday from 8am to 1.30pm and Sunday from 9am to 1.30pm. Our Market is inspired by the wonderful food markets found in France.

For a casual and relaxed evening with great French inspired bistro food, come to our French Bistro open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights. You’ll love our mix of Kiwi informality combined with rustic French flair. Our delicious food is served in large bowls and on platters allowing you to plate your own food and to mix and match

La Cigale French Bistro is a great place to relax and socialise. Tucked away in a hidden corner of Parnell with plenty of parking and easy access to motorways and the CBD, you will be delighted with our alluring mix of friendly, informal Kiwi hospitality and the rustic French flair that characterises everything La Cigale.

We have so many intriguing things to look at, you can taste our delicious food and wine, smell beautifully scented French fragrances, and you can touch unusual objects or cuddly fur scarves. People often describe us as being like a mini-department store with a very French emphasis.

La Cigale

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We have so many intriguing things to look at, you can taste our delicious food and wine, smell beautifully scented French fragrances, and you can touch unusual objects or ...

La Cigale a brief history

Elizabeth and Mike Lind

Nearly seventeen years ago, inspired by what we’d experienced on a trip to France with our daughters, we wrote a one plan for what was to become La Cigale. Having travelled to France for many years in our textile business we loved all aspects of French style from fashion to interior decoration to food and wine. We decided to try and bring as much of that as possible to Auckland.

Our name ‘La Cigale’ means ‘cicada’ in French. It’s the emblem of Provence and the subject of a poem, ‘La Cigale et La Fourmi’ (The Cicada and The Ant) by Jean de Fontaine. When we started many of our first products came from Provence and because one of our first bistro experiences in Paris was at ‘La Cigale’ way back in 1980.

From very small beginnings with a shop selling a selection of French homewares, gifts and gourmet food, we’ve now grown to a business with many aspects – our shop now also includes French fashion, antiques and brocante and garden decoration; three nights a week we serve delicious dinners in our French Bistro; every day we have great coffee and lunch in our café; we’re a relaxing venue for a variety of functions; and of course, there’s our famous French Market every weekend.

La Cigale has been and continues to be an evolving, living thing. Come in and experience it yourself. You’ll find that we appeal to all your senses.

As well we keep our customers up-to-date with regular postings on our Facebook page and a weekly email newsletter. This includes a new recipe every week, tells you what’s on and coming up and, from time to time, there’ll be travel tips and tales from our regular trips to France.